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Vulnerability Assessment Details

[GLSA-200501-02] a2ps: Multiple vulnerabilities

Detailed Explanation for this Vulnerability Assessment
The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-200501-02
(a2ps: Multiple vulnerabilities)

Javier Fernandez-Sanguino Pena discovered that the a2ps package
contains two scripts that create insecure temporary files (fixps and
psmandup). Furthermore, we fixed in a previous revision a vulnerability
in a2ps filename handling (CVE-2004-1170).

Impact

A local attacker could create symbolic links in the temporary files
directory, pointing to a valid file somewhere on the filesystem. When
fixps or psmandup is executed, this would result in the file being
overwritten with the rights of the user running the utility. By
enticing a user or script to run a2ps on a malicious filename, an
attacker could execute arbitrary commands on the system with the rights
of that user or script.